


Leap Right In

by willow_larkspur



Series: Fantasy February [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Because of Canon & Logic, Character Death, Death Eaters, Desi Harry Potter, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Guide Harry Potter, Harry Potter Goes to a Different School, Harry Potter was Raised by Other(s), It's the Death Eaters, Not Albus Dumbledore Friendly, Not Severus Snape Friendly, Protective Blaise Zabini, Raised Jewish, Respectful Blaise Zabini, Sentinel Blaise Zabini, Spirit Animals, Tichels, we STAN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29806326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willow_larkspur/pseuds/willow_larkspur
Summary: It's been eight years since Harini left both the Dursleys and then England behind. Now her past has found her in both the best and worst ways.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini
Series: Fantasy February [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141499
Kudos: 32
Collections: MC4A Year 3





	Leap Right In

**Author's Note:**

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
> Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is references to past child abuse and resulting issues. There is also references to canon bigotry and intent to be sexually violent. And one death on screen with others being cursed. Feel free to back out if need be.  
> Author’s Note: I’m back at it with the Sentinel/Guide thing. Once again, I am including a brief description of the trope specifics, since I know that it’s still more popular on Ao3 than FFN.
> 
> AU Trope Specifics (Quick & Dirty): Sentinels have enhanced physical senses & physical abilities (strength/dexterity kind of thing). Guides have enhanced metaphysical senses like empathy & telepathy. Sensitive is a collective term for both Sentinels & Guides, with Sensitivity being a collective term for both sets of enhancements. Most Sensitives do not have their abilities become active until adulthood, unless something traumatic forces the activation as a survival instinct. The Center for Sensitive Services is an organization dedicated to fulfilling the needs of Sensitives, including things like training and seeing to their unique medical needs. Spirit animals are metaphysical guardians & companions of Sensitives and are only visible to Sensitives. Sensitives are territorially protective over what they view as their Tribe, which often leads them to drift naturally into social groups similar to wolves or large cats. A pack is a family group including at least one Sensitive; a pride is a much larger group and often occurs when there's several Sensitives within the same workplace. Blessed Protector is when a Sensitive (most commonly a Sentinel) goes deep into their instincts where all they can focus on is protecting someone/something.

(^^)  
 **Leap Right In**  
(^^)

Harini couldn’t seem to settle enough to sleep. She twisted from her back to her side. Whatever else she did, she would give into the temptation to use her abilities to check on Blaise. She wasn’t paranoid about him leaving. She  _ wasn’t _ . He had promised that he was going to be just outside on the couch.

He had told her that he understood that she would want to be alone after what he had stopped earlier.

He had said that he would be there until her family got there, and he had felt completely sincere when he had said it. Despite having just met the Sentinel, she was certain he was the type to keep his promises. So she wasn’t going to make it seem like she didn’t trust him by checking on him.

Tante Marlene had insisted that they all move out of England shortly after they had found Harini shortly before her eleventh birthday. Uncle Remus had initially disagreed, for reasons that Harini never did figure out beyond how sad the idea had made him feel. Then one day, he had come to pick her up from her Guide lesson practically burning with rage, and they had gone from the main Cardiff Center to the airport where they had boarded a plane that eventually took them to Sydney, Australia, where they were still living now eight years later.

Her aunts and uncle—her pack, more than the Dursleys had ever been—had never lied to her about why Harini had grown up without them. They had never tried to hide what apparently most wixen in the UK believed about her. Well, Aunt Rhiannon hadn’t, and it wouldn’t be fair to call the way that Tante Marlene tended to act like everyone understood her references without ever explaining anything was  _ hiding _ anything. Uncle Remus had a tendency to try to withhold information he thought might be distressing for her, but she had gotten used to his overprotective nature making him be stupid on occasion. It was actually nice when it wasn’t annoying.

So when the group of five strangers had just appeared in front of her as she had been cutting down an alley on her way back to her apartment from Macquarie, she wasn’t completely shocked. Despite the lack of formal schooling in it, Harini was well away that magic was real. One of the first lessons that she had learned was that no one understood the way her empathy could recognize magic to the same nuanced degree that most Guides struggled to achieve with the emotions that they all could sense. That was ignoring how she could do the same thing with physical sensations, which should not have been possible. The most likely theory for the difference was that whatever had allowed her to survive the Killing Curse with no more injuries than a cut on her forehead and the activation of her abilities had also changed or added to her Sensitivity.

In any case, she had not been surprised to see the wixen appear. What had thrown her was how they had immediately attacked. The Center had self-defense lessons available for any Sensitive wanting them, having learned quick that it prevented most accidental injuries and deaths for the territorial fights to have some measure of control than attempting to suppress the instinct in Sensitives completely. Tante Marlene had made sure that Harini attended regularly. Uncle Remus was just as insistent training Harini in magical forms of combat. Both training regimes had included how to handle multiple opponents.

She had been holding her own until the black-clad man with a hooked nose had managed to touch her bare skin. No matter how much her mental shields had improved over the years, she never could manage to hold them against someone touching her skin-to-skin. She had been dunked into the miasma of the man’s rage and thirst to claim in any (every) way possible. It had knocked her to her knees before she had even realized she had been screaming.

That had been when Blaise had just arrived. He had taken out the remaining three Death Eaters before he had even finished spinning from apparating into the alley. The spells had been precise and the distinctive red of the Stunning Curse. The man holding her had sneered at him before shifting his hold from her arm to the back of her neck.

“Back off, Zabini,” he had ordered, “or I won’t hesitate to snap her pretty neck. It would be a pity to do so, as the Dark Lord promised her to me for breeding since he had been unable to grant my request for her mother, but she cannot be allowed to continue roaming free as she has been.”

“Not going to lie, Snape,” Blaise had replied, “seeing proof that you’re just as disgusting as my instincts had always insisted is not a surprise.” Harini remembered gagging as the lust-tinged rage from this  _ Snape _ had stabbed into her like a knife rather than simply filling all her senses like a fog. “Let her go right now, and I promise to make sure you’re turned over to a British Center instead of the local one.”

“As amusing as your pathetic attempt at negotiation is,” Snape had countered as he had given her a shake which had made her stomach threaten to rebel, “I think we’ll be going now.”

Snape had shifted his hold from the nape of her neck to the scarf covering her head. She hadn’t hesitated to take advantage of the small reprieve. She had just stabbed out with her empathy, and Snape had crumpled like a wet towel, her raspberry headscarf still clutched in his hand. Mercifully, her hair had stayed contained in its thick bun instead of tumbling free. She had grimaced at the idea of putting that particular one back on, no matter how uncomfortable she was without a tichel after so many years of wearing one. She already felt filthy from the man’s touch, both physical and metaphysical.

She had been about to draw her wand to conjure a temporary replacement when a purple cloth embroidered with copper swirls along the edges had appeared in her line of sight. She had shifted her gaze along the hand holding it and up the arm to see how Blaise was steadfastly looking the opposite direction. Protectiveness with just a hint of territoriality pulsed from him despite how tightly he was trying to control it. Her fingers had brushed against his as she had taken the offered replacement.

The electric zing from that touch as much as everything else about him had been why she had accepted his escort back to her apartment, and then she had accepted his offer to stay with her.

She turned to lay on her other side, still restless. Anxiety crept up her spine to whisper doubts in her ear. Maybe Blaise had left. He wasn’t actually beholden to her, or at least, he had no more obligation to her than any other stranger would have. Sure, most of the time, Sensitives tended to treat each other as extended members of their own packs and prides regardless of how well they knew one another. But Harini knew those kinds of things didn’t tend to carry over to her.

Some part of her would forever be the runty girl who hid in bushes to stay out of sight of her relatives.

Harini tossed off her blanket, giving up on sleep for the moment. She put back on the tichel Blaise had conjured for her before heading towards the door to her bedroom. She moved with the same silence that had been taught to her by the Dursleys. It had served her well while trying to sneak past two guardians with enhanced hearing. It should allow her to check on Blaise without resorting to her own senses. Just a quick peek and then she’d be able to sleep.

The couch was empty except for knitted blanket that Aunt Rhiannon had given her as a housewarming gift.

Her heart skipped a beat as panic slammed into her. She was so busy breathing her way into an asthma attack that she nearly missed the concerned chirping of her spirit animal. Only the prickly feeling of his manifestation had her turning her head towards the small frog. Once he had her attention, Pan flashed his bright purple underbelly at her as he did a complicated twist to go under the lintel of the doorway to her tiny kitchen. Afraid of what she would find but needing to check as quickly as possible, she rushed to look into the room.

Blaise was puttering around her kitchen while the magical radio that had been Uncle Remus’ housewarming gift played just barely loud enough for her to hear it. To a Sentinel, it was likely at what mundanes might consider a normal volume. She blinked as she realized that he wasn’t just puttering. He was dancing as he heated up her leftover takeaway. The jerked goat and curry filled the air with a spicy scent that was probably not considered Sentinel friendly. Blaise spotted her as he turned to deal with the whistling kettle. His instantaneous smile made the ball of tension in her chest release.

“I didn’t mean to wake you yet,” he said as he turned off the flames beneath the kettle. He used her quilted potholder to pick the kettle and poured water into a pair of mugs waiting on the nearby counter. Setting it back on the stove, he reached for a spoon to stir the mugs, one after the other. Her nose twitched as the smell of chocolate reached her. “You have good timing, though. Couldn’t sleep?”

“No,” she admitted reluctantly. She didn’t want to go into the reasons for that. Thankfully, he seemed to accept her answer with nothing more than a nod. “Were you so bored that you needed to take over my kitchen?”

“Well, in the sense that I couldn’t settle either,” Blaise answered. “Maybe we should rebel against the crown? That would make our day less boring.”

“We’re in Australia,” Harini reminded him. “We don’t have a crown here. Perhaps we should rebel against the ministry instead. We could make a clever use of matching hats.”

“I’m actually quite fluent in sarcasm, but something tells me that you’re not being sarcastic when you say that.”

“I’m not.” She enjoyed the exaggerated look of worry on his face for a moment. “It seems like a lot of work, though, so maybe some other time.”

“As you wish,” Blaise said, and then he pushed her over a portion of the leftovers and a steaming mug. She lifted the mug to clink it softly against his in a silent toast. Then they ate standing at the counter side by side. 

She relaxed in his presence in a way that she wasn’t used to with Sentinels other than Tante Marlene. Aunt Rhiannon had suggested that Harini had absorbed the Dursleys’ irrational fear of Sensitives as a whole and Sentinels specifically. The assessors at the Centers had been certain that the tension wasn’t Sentinel Aversion, as she could still work with them, but that had been all they were willing to say on the matter. 

Yet by the time their plates were cleared and their mugs empty, she found herself leaning sleepily into Blaise’s side the same way she would Uncle Remus. Blaise’s arm on that side was wrapped around her like a protective shelter. His chin rested on the top of her head, obviously drawing the same amount of comfort from her presence as she was from his. They were swaying slightly in place to the quiet music still playing on the radio.

“Harini?” he murmured. She hummed in drowsy acknowledgment. “I think we should go to bed soon.” She couldn’t help the way she tensed at the suggestion, all her earlier worry leaking back in. He shushed her gently as he rubbed his hand against her arm. “I think we’d both sleep better if we were near each other. I am not suggesting anything more than sleep, but may I be allowed to continue holding you while we sleep?”

“Yes,” Harini answered. 

Then she let him lead her to her own bedroom. The look on his face when she removed her tichel, revealing the braid that she had put her hair into for her earlier attempt at sleeping, was reverent. It only lasted a moment before he was looking away, still respectful despite how the situation was questionably intimate. With a gentle touch to his cheek, she directed his attention back to her. Looking directly into his eyes (the same shade of violet as the tichel he had conjured for her) was not as hard as it had always seemed with everyone else. 

They laid down facing each other, their fingers intertwined on the bed between them. Somewhere along the way, they slipped into a deep sleep. They didn’t wake until the morning when Harini’s family had arrived in an explosion of noise and territorial displays aimed at the man they had found in their vulnerable daughter’s bed with her.

**Author's Note:**

> Submitting Info:  
> Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A  
> Individual Challenges: Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Take for Collection (Y); Shabbat Habit; No School MC; Slytherin MC; Rian-Russo Inversion (x2); Ethnic & Present (x2); Setting Sail; Neurodivergent; Claimed; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Sentinel; Short Jog; The Story Goes On; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon  
> House: Slytherin  
> Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 03  
> Subject (Task No.): n/a  
> Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [53](Someone escaping a dangerous situation); 365 Prompts [53](radio); Scavenger Hunt [86](Sharing a Bed); Days of the Year [Jan 6th](Someone cuddles up to someone else); Black History Month [13](a death that is significant in some way); Colours [08](Raspberry); Flowers [05]("...fluent..."); Crystals & Gemstones [04](Struggling to get to sleep); Tarot Reading [08](Something urgent that can't wait); Slytherin Characters [20](Severus Snape); But Can You Spell It? [R](Real); Stop! Hamper Time (Biscuits)[Pink Wafer Biscuits](Sharing a Bed); You Get My Love (Love Languages)[08](Scarf); Would You Rather (04)[Meet Ugly]; Fantasy February (04)[Dialogue]; Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 3](Jewish Character); That Lovin' Feeling [List 1](10)[First Time Sleeping Over]  
> Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [4C](Fog/Mist); Set [1B](Conference/Seminar); WiB [4E](Music); Vocab [5A](Grimace); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Fa Micro 1](Sentinel/Guide AU); Fire [Hard](Adventure Tales); Chim [Karma](Gender Bend; Copper); Hangman [05](Queer Relationships); Hunt [Fa WD](Major Respitory Issue)/[Wi Set](Sydney)/[Fa Item](Radio)/[Su Con](Jerked Goat)/[Fa Con](Hot Chocolate)/[Wi Con](Curry);  
> Representation(s): Jewish, Desi, & Autistic Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Always Fem Harry Potter; Sentinel Blaise Zabini; Guide Harry  
> Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Suddenly Audrey; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Lock & Key; Lovely Coconuts; Muck & Slime; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Ariel’s Temptation); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Fire Song; Tomorrow’s Shade; A Long Dog; Bandstand; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Surprise!; Cooler Yelp; Some Beach; Getting On; Hot Stuff; Tied & Died)  
> Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3(Tether); SN(Rail; Intercept); FR(Liberation; Satisfaction); O3(Orator; Oath); HoSE(Schooner; Sanctuary); FIN(Ensanguine); AD(Association); CM(n/a); War(Monomania; Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY(Slainte; Kulonbozo); DP(Yearn); Share(Passacaglia; Ameliorate; Augur)  
> Word Count: 2198 words


End file.
